Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of military aircraft munitions loading, specifically to the provision of a series of mechanical and electronic components collected and assembled to provide the means for loading munitions onto aircraft while in flight.
Shrinking defense budgets, combined with the increasing needs of the United States to project its military power often on short notice throughout the world, requires the armed forces to do more with less equipment and fewer personnel. Recently, as can be seen in the case of the war against Iraq, there has been a lack of consensus among allies forcing the United States to “go it alone” when prosecuting the war against terrorism. The nations of Europe, for example, lying closer as they do to areas of turmoil such as the Middle East, are often reluctant to take hard stances against terrorists who lie within an automobile ride from their borders. As can be seen most recently with Turkey during operation “Iraqi Freedom”, nations are often reluctant to promptly provide forward operating locations or to grant flyover rights for United States military aircraft lest these nations seem to be associated too closely with United States military initiatives. The delays caused by these diplomatic barriers can seriously impact United States' combat operational planning.
What is needed therefore is a means to not only refuel U.S. military aircraft while in flight, so as to extend mission operational effectiveness, but also a means to continually reload the munitions which have been expended during combat operations without having to return to either a distant friendly nation's ground bases, or in the case of naval airpower, to a distant aircraft carrier, to obtain more munitions.
Military combat aircraft require both fuel and munitions to complete their assigned missions. While the re-fueling of combat aircraft can be accomplished either while on the ground or in the air, the loading of munitions has thus far been limited to the ground. Because of this, the weapons mounts currently found on the pylons of military combat aircraft are designed specifically to be ‘single-shot’ in function and they are re-serviced each time the aircraft lands and takes off. Additionally, aerial rearmament would benefit the extension of airframe serviceable life of combat aircraft which is otherwise degraded each time a combat aircraft's heavy wing loads are stressed during take off. With an aerial re-armament system, combat aircraft would no longer need to take off with any munition as they can all be loaded on the aircraft while in flight. Re-arming the aircraft while in flight would also offer added advantages in terms of military intelligence in that observers (spies) on the ground would not know where a combat aircraft's targets lie in terms of proximity to the ground base, nor what munitions would be employed against a target list. With aerial re-armament, surprise would be achieved and maintained throughout aerial combat operations.
What is needed therefore is a system for aerial re-armament of combat aircraft so as to enhance the response time, combat effectiveness, deployment options and reach of United States' combat air forces.